Thinking of going T3 only need advice on stoppi... - Thyroid UK

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Thinking of going T3 only need advice on stopping levo and adding more T3

Pascha1 profile image
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I am on 100mgs Levothyroxine and 30mgs T3 per day.

As I know the cost of T3 may stop My Endo prescribing me all T3 , and feel awkward asking re the cost .

So I was thinking of self medicating as would like to know if going T3 only could make me 100% better.

Few questions

1. Will my blood results look different ?

2 . How slowly should I reduce Levothyroxine ?

3. How quickly should I add the rest of T3 ?

4. And finally how much T3 to I take to replace the 100mgs ?

My last bloods results below were on 100mgs Levothyroxine and 20 msg of T3, my Endo since these added another 10mgs T3

TSH 0.004 Range 0.35 - 4.94 ( my TSH low like this for years)

T4 12.7 Range 9--19

T3 4.9 Range 2.9 - 4.9

I have some Greece T3 but they are 25mgs

Any advice would be apprieciated

Thank you for any replies in advance ..

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Pascha1
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Jazzw profile image
Jazzw

Hi Pascha1. My gut feeling is that you may not benefit from switching to T3 only. Your FT3 results were top of the range, which is where you want them (and don’t worry about your TSH - it’s always suppressed when you take T3, in any amount). And you say those results are from before your dose was raised to 30mcg of T3, so levels will be higher still now, I expect.

So I’m thinking it’s more likely you have nutritional deficiencies which are making you feel rubbish. Have you had your B12, folate, ferritin and Vit D levels tested? If even one of those is low (and hypothyroid folk often find they’re low in all of them!), it will leave you feeling lousy.

Pascha1 profile image
Pascha1 in reply to Jazzw

Thank you very much for replying ,

My gut instinct tells me I will do better on T3 only and really feel I have to try it and if i don't try I will never know If I will feel better on it! If I dont feel any better on it I will just add the T4 back.

Now even though I have had the increase which I take last thing at night I sleep better and wake up warm as before the increase I was shivering when I woke up. I am still having times where I feel cold again in the daytime Temp goes to 36.1 - 36.4 and also get a severe head aches, and my sciatica comes niggling back , When T3 appears to have run out I feel extremely fatigued and have to go and sleep and as soon as I take my next dose of T3 I get a normal temperature and feel warm again temp then at 37.4 and head ache goes and feel more energised.

Im also wondering if my Levothyroxine maybe just going into reverse T3,

I feel that Levothyroxine has never worked on me my Bloods looked normal for years and even with many increases I never felt any better and even when over medicated on Levo I was still freezing cold and low temperatures of 34.5 -36,1 but I felt far from normal,

I have quite a few genetic faults and I metabolise tablets quicker than most, Pro drugs I have never been able to do I have bad reactions to most nor do I do time released ones at all well

, I have only recently discovered Levothyroxine is a Prodrug or I may have sussed it 13 years ago it wasnt working properly.

I was bed ridden on T4 alone and in severe pain and even diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, as only had bad symptoms after becoming Hypothyroid and starting on Levothyroxine ,

and as what seems often to happen to many on here the GPs i had complained about symptoms palmed me off with everything but the thyroid.

Im waiting to have bloods done on B12 which were 397 a while back I added B12 sublingual and they rocketed to over 1270 also Having calcium and few other things done just got to wait ages to have done as in the middle of nowhere and earliest I can have done is on the 18th the joys of living Rural

, Folate ok ferritin was in range although a bit low but eating liver once or twice a week to resolve that,

So I think I need to try T3 only to see if it works or not :) I appreciate very much you replying to me

Thank you

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